Thanx, irontick, it's a strange one alright, it acts as if the 'edges' of objects aren't solid, i've gone into the 'planets' attributes and tried literaly everything, so it cant be the nurb or poly's fault, i've tried every conceivable attrib of the point light too, maybe your right about the camera thing, lol, thats the only thing i haven't tried messing with yet, i'll give it a go